Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Alzara looked away from Soara. Soara didn't care that Alzara already felt shame and disgrace at her failure.

"And instead of continuing to try, you went and started playing with Yanael and a half-dead insect?!" Soara questioned.

"H-hey—" Yanael tried interrupting, breaking up the fight. Soara spun the still mostly petrified angel around.

"...I've been trying different potions on their petrification. Solutions that might have adverse effects and so on. Master said he trusted me. Do you really think I would stop trying?" Alzara shot Soara a sharp glare.

"But if the one that doesn't work on Master works on others, what makes you think the ones that work or don't work on others will work on him?!" Zach was right now trapped in a stone coffin closer than a second skin, steadily approaching his limits and death. Why was Alzara focusing on Yanael and the Millipede? This wasn't the time for proper procedure and caution.

Alzara continued glaring at Soara for a second. She had already tried a bunch of different things on Zach. One of the things that had no effect on Yanael made the stone on Zach grow. Zach would have been in even more trouble if she had used more than half a drop to test that version.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you were the alchemist. Here! Take this. With your expertise, it shouldn't be a problem to fix Master, right?!" Alzara held out a few of her tools and ingredients to Soara in a fit of anger.

"Since you know so much, it shouldn't be a problem, right? A few minutes is all it should take for you to concoct a potion to break the dead man's petrification of a Basilisk who's already died once and then been resurrected by some kind of fucking bullshit artificial life and underworld energy, right?!" Alzara shoved the things into Soara's hands and stormed off.

"..." Soara looked at Alzara's back with tools and ingredients that she didn't even know the right side up of in her hands. She sighed.

"Soara…" Yanael said in a low voice.

"...I know." She turned to Nessa.

"Either wipe that one's drool or tell it to stop holding back. It's not like anyone's going to take care of this snake anyway."

The Millipede was also still partially petrified and had cracks running all over its body, both in the stone and the carapace. None of that stopped it from looking at the meat all around it with burning eyes of hunger. It seemed pretty intent on finishing what it started earlier.

At Soara's words, the Millipede looked at Nessa with pleading eyes. She shrugged and nodded. Less than a second later, the Millipede was already plunging its head into the Basilisk's meat.

Nessa looked at Yanael and Soara awkwardly.

"So, uh…" She began saying.

"The situation outside is fine. For now. Alzara probably went to Zach. Let's give her a minute or two before joining her," Soara said, answering Nessa's awkwardness with direction.

When Yanael lost enough of her petrification to move independently, they started walking toward the remains of the Basilisk's head, where Zach, Alzara, and Mandra hopefully still were.

That they were, but they weren't alone.

Mandra had maintained a magic barrier inside the skull during the crash, keeping a room-sized open space for Zach's comfort. The brain was smashed into one corner of the cracked skull in a messy pile. The other corner had a peaceful-looking Zach statue, frowning Alzara, expressionless Mandra, and terrified four-eyed, four-armed, six-fingered, scrawny underworlder. In front of the underworlder, there was also a lump of green-black, pulsating flesh that looked a little like a heart.

Alzara looked up when she noticed the others but looked away at once after glancing at Soara.

Yanael walked over to Mandra and stood next to her while looking at the underworlder and the heart.

"Is that…?" She began asking.

"...The source of artificial life? Yes." Mandra nodded.

"Where was it?"

Mandra nodded toward what used to be the spine.

"We walked right past it. It was embedded in the Basilisk's spinal chord."

"And this guy?"

"He was trying to retrieve it."

Yanael glanced at Soara, who was looking at the underworlder with narrow eyes.

Soara sensed Yanael's gaze.

"I have no idea how he snuck past me. I didn't let down my guard."

The underworlder had gotten within several meters of Zach and the others without anyone noticing. If he had had malicious intentions, it might have been too late by the time they noticed him, though part of the reason they didn't notice him was his lack of murderous intent.

Alzara took a closer look at the artificial heart. She frowned.

"This thing feels off," she said after a moment of contemplation, prompting Soara to take a closer look. Alzara's words reminded her of something.

However, Soara sighed in relief after inspecting the source of artificial life.

"This much isn't anything to worry about. They just found a way to bend the laws of life and death slightly. It's the inversion of suspended animation. Instead of keeping someone on the verge of death to prolong their life, they're putting someone or something on the verge of death to imitate life. I can't tell what the limits or restrictions are, but it could be worse."

Alzara looked between the heart and Zach. Read new chapters at empire

"Could this be used in case…?"

"Probably. But Master won't die. I won't let it happen." As a deity of death, Soara's words carried some weight, especially in her current state.

"Master also won't die because he's not in danger. The petrification can't kill him," Mandra said, breaking the serious atmosphere Soara just built.

"The petrification can't break through his energy, but the energy isn't getting rid of the petrification. Master is in a state of limbo until the balance is broken," she explained.

However, the others only cared about the final part of her explanation.

Zach was kind of fine for now. But the scales could tip in two directions when the balance broke. They could tip in favor of the energy, or they could tip in favor of the petrification that was spurred on by the Basilisk's death.

His life was dangling by a thread—a thread that would either snap or pull him out of the abyss.